Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Do it Yourself Discussion! => Topic started by: TrulyStashin on October 22, 2014, 08:05:02 AM

On a Thursday in early October, my elderly German Shepard had a bad day and peed on the wool living room rug. Not one but twice. It was a LAKE of dog pee in the center of the rug. It is a lovely 8 x 10, high quality rug that I bought at deep discount several years ago. Original price -- $900. I scored it for $200.

Professional rug cleaning would cost more than I paid for the rug. The day she peed on it, I cleaned it as best I could while it was still in the living room (it was a workday).

Three days later, on Sunday morning (10/4), I rolled it up and dragged it outside and laid it face down on the driveway. I put on my rain boots and knee pads (left over from a DIY floor sanding project) and got out the laundry detergent and a scrub brush. I scrubbed and scrubbed, the "wrong" side of the rug first. Then I grabbed a cup of coffee and sipped coffee while I rinsed the rug thoroughly using the cold water hose.

Then I flipped the rug over -- not easy for a 8 x 10 sopping wet wool rug -- and repeated the scrubbing from the "right" side of the rug. I enjoyed a second cup of coffee while rinsing it again.

I left it in the driveway for the whole day. Fortunately, it was sunny and warm. At the end of the day, my son, his gf, and I dragged the rug into the garage. I had set up two saw horses with a ladder laid across them. We dragged the rug onto the ladder so it could dry.

My word, but it stank to high heaven. I was quite sure that my efforts would be no good. Wet wool and wet dog combined. Oy.

A week later, it was still funky. Two weeks later and the funk was fading. We're almost at the three week mark and yesterday I did a thorough nose-test. No smell!

I hauled it down off the ladder/ saw horse contraption and laid it on the driveway for a good vacuuming. Then I rolled it up and dragged it back into the house. No smell and the rug is cleaner than it's ever been since it arrived.

We bought a townhome and replaced the upstairs carpeting (was just well used) when we moved in. Didn't think we needed to in the downstairs area. We saw a stain that we didn't notice before buying (was under a couch), but figured eh, the carpet's still in good shape, we'll just shampoo it.

Once we started to shampoo it, all sorts of smells/funk came out. It took over the downstairs area. Tried the powders, more shampooing, NOTHING. Finally, we say f it and rip up the carpet. They had the super cheap foam padding (not even rebond). This stunk too. All the carpet and padding has since been thrown out. We cleaned the concrete twice (some lysol cleaner) and then water only mopped a few times too. Still had a smell!

Finally, we got KILZ Max from Lowes. Not a low VOC paint but this seems to have done the job. Used it to completely cover the floor and still a little bit of paint smell (we did it on Saturday, it's now Thursday), but no pet odor! We're going to be looking for carpet this weekend.

A lot of work but I look it as a win because we A - aren't paying for the disposal (my garbage guys took it all) and B - got to do it right. If we had the carpet done originally, we would have still had this funky smelling concrete under our carpet. They wouldn't have been able to clean it up and seal it in such a short time frame.

I've got a much cheaper synthetic rug that I use to cover up some mysterious stains in the carpet of my apartment. (These stains have miraculously reappeared after three professional carpet cleaning - it was either rearrange my area rugs or call an exorcist. Ha ha) I'm great about vacuuming my throw rugs but I noticed it's starting to look pretty dingy. You've inspired me to borrow a steam cleaner and give it an over-haul instead of researching replacement options. If I can make this work, I will have had this cheap, Walmart rug for 12 years. :-)

Hi! My first post so thanks for patience. I went behind the scenes with a rug dealer to learn about rug cleaning. You did a great job. The keys are gentle detergent, a lot of water and drying the rug flat. The flat rug is really hard because it is so heavy and unwieldy. I have washed my fancy pants antique rugs in the driveway or garage many times, laying them flat and turning a fan on them. It takes several days to fully dry the rug. Rug needs to be flat to stop warping. Funky smell is definitely to be expected. Kudos to you for trying this out and doing a good job.

I agree on the "dry it flat" thing. I wasn't able to do that. It dried up on the ladder that bridged two sawhorses. When I first put it back in the room and it was flat again, a couple of raised areas (where the feet of the ladder were) are evident but they're shrinking a little each day as gravity does its work. Hopefully, over time, the rug will lose it's lumpy spots altogether.

I agree on the "dry it flat" thing. I wasn't able to do that. It dried up on the ladder that bridged two sawhorses. When I first put it back in the room and it was flat again, a couple of raised areas (where the feet of the ladder were) are evident but they're shrinking a little each day as gravity does its work. Hopefully, over time, the rug will lose it's lumpy spots altogether.

A tip for next time, after it has been cleaned and dried, sprinkle a box of baking soda on to remove the odor much faster. I just finished removing the odor of rotten octopus from the back of my minivan after shampooing the carpet and applying baking soda. I let it set for a day and vacuumed up.

On a Thursday in early October, my elderly German Shepard had a bad day and peed on the wool living room rug. Not one but twice. It was a LAKE of dog pee in the center of the rug. It is a lovely 8 x 10, high quality rug that I bought at deep discount several years ago. Original price -- $900. I scored it for $200.

Professional rug cleaning would cost more than I paid for the rug. The day she peed on it, I cleaned it as best I could while it was still in the living room (it was a workday).

Three days later, on Sunday morning (10/4), I rolled it up and dragged it outside and laid it face down on the driveway. I put on my rain boots and knee pads (left over from a DIY floor sanding project) and got out the laundry detergent and a scrub brush. I scrubbed and scrubbed, the "wrong" side of the rug first. Then I grabbed a cup of coffee and sipped coffee while I rinsed the rug thoroughly using the cold water hose.

Then I flipped the professional carpet cleaning new Westminster (http://optionspluscarpetcleaning.ca/home/carpet-cleaning-in-new/)rug over -- not easy for a 8 x 10 sopping wet wool rug -- and repeated the scrubbing from the "right" side of the rug. I enjoyed a second cup of coffee while rinsing it again.

I left it in the driveway for the whole day. Fortunately, it was sunny and warm. At the end of the day, my son, his gf, and I dragged the rug into the garage. I had set up two saw horses with a ladder laid across them. We dragged the rug onto the ladder so it could dry.

My word, but it stank to high heaven. I was quite sure that my efforts would be no good. Wet wool and wet dog combined. Oy.

A week later, it was still funky. Two weeks later and the funk was fading. We're almost at the three week mark and yesterday I did a thorough nose-test. No smell!

I hauled it down off the ladder/ saw horse contraption and laid it on the driveway for a good vacuuming. Then I rolled it up and dragged it back into the house. No smell and the rug is cleaner than it's ever been since it arrived.

Me - 1; Dog pee - 0

To me, an act is not truly Mustachian bad-ass unless it involves work AND a little tolerance for grossness. You have achieved!! Kudos. Did you read that the pee smell would go away eventually or was that totally on faith? I would have cried after step 1 when the smell was still there.